SFC Forever

The FA pussyfooting around as they are , are only making it worse for the club and fans. It is almost like being punished twice.

Bringinging in Argent would enable us to play James in midfield. With only wins going to be any help why don't we just go for broke. A 1-0 defeat won't hurt any less than 5-2 because it will mean no points

If one is struggling to make a reasonable stake is it possible to keep adding to the fund?

Just seen something very interesting. Comes from the sun online I am told CRAIG DAVID has emerged as a shock contender to save Southampton from going out of business. The 27-year-old pop star is a huge Saints fan and has followed their rise and fall since he was a boy. He has expressed his shock at seeing the club he supports formally put up for sale after its parent company called in administrators to rescue the Championship strugglers. Half a dozen parties have shown an interest in trying to prevent the South Coast side from folding. And now R&B singer-songwriter David has vowed to lend his support to the cause, calling on serious backers to ‘fill me in’. The ‘Born To Do It’ star said: “I’ve been a big Saints supporter since I was five and like most kids dreamed of one day running out of the tunnel at the old Dell in red and white stripes! "The club is too important to me and the people of Southampton in general to be in this kind of mess, so it’s vital that we all do what we can to help. "I’m currently on tour in Japan otherwise I’d definitely be showing my support on the terraces at St Mary's tomorrow for the Charlton game. "But I am happy to help out in any way I can and if anybody is thinking of starting a campaign or a consortium to save the club, count me in and get in touch!”.

Derry sounds as though he can take this move on. Others have helped by offering their knowledge(legal) and time. We need to broadcast this once, we have agreed exactly what we are going to try to do. If other groups are trying to upstage us they will very quickly be found out. We simply need to be able to put our position forward in a manner that can be easily read, understood and appreciated. The marches received publicity and they had a far less inspiring reason then than the one we have now. Our ship has been holed and we could be the ballast to keep it afloat. However we do need people from outside this forum and a lot of them to get anywhere near to our target. Let's get our message across once we know exactly what we intend to do. LET US PERSUADE THE DOUBTERS BY PUTTING A COMPLETE PACKAGE IN FRONT OF THEM. SHOW THAT WE ARE NOT JUST A FORUM THAT FIGHTS AND BICKERS.

My thanks for the reply but my main concern is the time schedule. Until we know exactly how much money we would have, we would not be in a position to make any offers. I can though see this idea gaining momentum if it really takes off. The small guys like myself need a few moneyed folk to help lift the total so that we can see that the target can be achieved. Target being the saving of our club. Being a lawyer I envisage you being able to read and understand any rules and regulations required for the future safety of our club.

Correct me if I am wrong but we wouldn't be buying it from SLH directly. Plus we would be able to haggle over the price. I do have a question for the more knowledgeable amongst us. If the club was closed down wouldn't it still be possible to then offer the money to buy it.

If only 20,000 could pay £1000 we would have £20,000,000. In my book that should be more than enough to keep the club afloat. Everything Saints orientated will be sold where possible and at less than would have been the price only two days ago. Under the present circumstances I cannot believe such an offer would be refused. These figures are only used as an average but show how easily a good and healthy sum could be raised. To offer shares at £100 sounds good to me and would mean the poorer fans like myself could put in what they could whilst the better off can put in a greater amount. The more we raised the less chance of someone repeating the same mistakes. PERSONALLY I WOULD BE PREPARED TO PUT IN A MONTHS RENT. RISKING THE WRATH OF MY LANDLORD.

Think this is what the fuss is all about. From Times Online... Financial woes at Southampton Football Club jeopardise listed parent Helen Power and Gary Jacob Southampton Football Club's listed parent company was teetering on the brink of administration last night after the club failed to agree an extension of its overdraft with Barclays Bank. Shares in the AIM-listed Southampton Leisure Holdings will be suspended this morning and Begbies Traynor, the accountancy firm, is standing by to step in as administrator of the troubled club, which has struggled since it was relegated from the Premier League in 2005. It is heavily indebted after spending more than £30 million on a 30,000-seat stadium four years ago. Rupert Lowe, its colourful executive chairman, is well known in the City as a former Deutsche Bank banker and the present chairman of WH Ireland, the stockbroker. However, Mr Lowe's return to the club last May after a well-publicised falling-out with Michael Wilde, its chairman, has failed to arrest the decline of the club. Barclays, which is being advised on talks with Southampton by DLA Piper, the law firm, declined to comment. However, sources close to the situation said that the board of the club would convene this morning to make the final arrangements to put the club's parent company into administration, with the business expected to apply to a court for an order within the week. It is understood that then the heavily indebted club will have until the end of the summer to find a buyer or face bankruptcy itself. Southampton has a £4 million overdraft with Barclays, which it has exceeded, and it also owes Norwich Union about £24 million for its stadium. It is understood that Barclays declined to extend Southampton's loan or invest equity on the grounds that it was not commercially viable. However, it is hoped that moves to put the club's parent company, rather than the club itself, into administration will save it from having points docked by the Coca-Cola Championship. The club received two years of parachute payments, totalling about £13 million, to cope with the reduction in income after relegation; however, inevitably, it was forced to sell its best young players, including Theo Walcott, the England winger, to Arsenal, and Gareth Bale, the Wales defender, to Tottenham Hotspur. Last year, Southampton avoided relegation to the third tier of English football on the last day of the season, although it faces a similar battle again, sitting second from the bottom of the Championship.

It is possible that we will manage to stay up but exceedingly unlikely that we would be able to gain enough points to get 10 points clear. Don't need to be a genius to work that out.

I think a win against Charlton followed by a point at watford will give us enough of a boost to fight on.

Not much chance of that happening DP. Wotte has already told us he keeps the job if we stay up.

I think Charlton will definitely be up for it as they won't want to finish bottom.

Well said GB. Every extra £ we can bring into the club must surely be of help in keeping us going.

Maybe Rupes can gain a cheap player or two.

We have now to decide on the manner of protest or reaction to them ignoring our overtures. If that is how they react. If an impasse ios reached we should try a similar thread to find the way forward by general consensus. By similar I mean constructive.

The only question I have for Jonah's idea is who would pay the wages of the selected replacements for the arbitrators?

I am totally nonplussed by the friendly arrival, after some lengthy discussion, at what appears an extremely logical solution. If the big three could be persuaded to work together it could possibly be the biggest turnaround in our recent history. Might I suggest that it could be an advantage to have two other places on the board. This to keep the sides balanced if you like. One could be a CEO and the other the person in charge of daily monetary affairs. It would ease any suspicion that 2 against 1 would always end with the same parties getting their way. However that is by the by. A good discussion with a most sensible arrival at something which could actually unite us, the fan base, at this troubled time.

Then thought of administration sends a chill down my spine. Going into the unknown is not always a good idea. We still have some very important winnable games which could bring in a few more paying customers. My main concern is what happens if we stay up. Do we release/sell many players to stay afloat?

Cardiff could only draw last night at home, struggling to score. Could they be having a minor blip in which case we could be playing them at the right time? Or are they going to remember how to score again?

I have marched and shouted the abuse along with others. I have called for a vast step up in tactics. I have also stood(sat) shouting the team on and singing with the Northam. Wotte has to earn our chants for him and he has started to help himself by making changes. Changes to the team and to the style of play. He also seems to be toughening up our team so I am hopeful that he can get us up the table to relative safety. If he does then he will deserve to have his name chanted along with our Saints songs. If he fails it won't all be down to him as we all know. Give him a chance because we need him to succeed.

Would be nice to have a ceasefire for a few weeks.

If that is close to Saturday nights league table we will be well and truly on the way up. Still have to beat Cardiff though which won't be as easy as Preston.

With cream??

Originally Posted by JohnnyFartPants To be honest it is not a big issue really and certainly not even slightly comparable to making monkey noises at black people. It is also pretty blinkered to call Welsh people sheep ****gers, however, as I for one know many Welsh people and some of them don't do this. Only some is more than none JFP